Sealing apparatuses are used to automatically seal beverage containers in wineries and must be designed for high outputs of, for instance, 20,000 bottles an hour. Basically, two kinds of such sealing apparatuses are known. In one kind, the caps are first deposited on the containers and then are slightly pressed onto the containers. The caps and containers are then moved to the sealing apparatus proper which, by means of sealing heads, carries out the sealing in either a rotating or a deforming manner depending upon the cap configuration.
For example, screw caps would be rotated to seal and crown caps would be deformed for sealing. In the other design, namely the pick-and-place procedure, the sealing heads grip the caps and move the caps onto the bottles in order to seal the bottles immediately.
Following checks on sorting and positions, the caps are fed on a single-track cap conveyor to the sealing apparatus. A transfer unit accepts the caps from the cap conveyor and moves the caps into the target positions for deposition on the containers. This procedure is implemented by the sealing heads themselves in pick-and-place machines.
As regards known apparatus of the aforementioned type, the containers move on a single track through the sealing apparatus, which typically is rotary. Accordingly, the transfer unit feeds all containers sequentially. Even as regards the known straight-line filling configuration, wherein several bottles in one linear filler are filled simultaneously and then are simultaneously sealed with several sealing heads on one linear sealer, the state of the art provides Single-Track bottle transport from the linear filler to the linear sealer, with the caps being sequentially deposited on the bottles along this single-track transport segment. Because in all known equipment of this type the containers are sequentially fitted with caps, the transfer unit must operate very rapidly. Furthermore the known equipment is restricted to single-track container transport.
The present invention is directed toward an apparatus of the aforementioned type that operates at a slower rate even during high container flow and which is free of the restrictions accompanying single-track container transport.
In accordance with the present invention, all containers in one row of containers are processed in one transfer operation of the transfer unit. Compared with the known, single-track configuration, the invention, at equal output, provides more time for operating the transfer unit, which thereby may accept the caps and move them into the target positions relatively slowly. Such procedures furthermore may be run in parallel.
The apparatus of the present invention is especially well suited for container processing machinery using parallel container transportation without requiring a number of parallel container tracks as would be required by conventional transfer units. The apparatus of the invention is applicable to depositing such caps as screw caps, crown caps or other sealing caps on bottles of all kinds, for instance plastic bottles. The present invention is also directed toward depositing lids on conventional cans. In special cases, the containers may be empty. Typically, however, the caps are deposited on filled containers that must be sealed.
The caps moved from a transfer unit into a target position may be gripped sequentially or, advantageously, simultaneously by the cap carriers and be deposited on the containers. The simultaneous operation permitted by the present invention permits a simplified design.
The caps may be deposited, for instance, by means of comoving cap carriers on moving containers. However, in accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the rows of containers are moved in timed or synchronized manner and are filled when standing still underneath predetermined target positions.
The cap conveyor may move the caps in different paths to the target positions, for instance moving all required caps on parallel tracks. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the transfer unit comprises only one single-track cap conveyor, thereby simplifying the design.
In further accordance with the present invention, many bar drivers are used for mutually transferring the caps and relaying each from target position to target position. This feature offers machinery that operates very precisely and that, on account of constrained conveyance, provides high reliability in reaching the target positions.
In accordance with other aspects of the invention, the caps are moved on a bottom strip which, when the target positions have been reached, are removed from under the caps individually or as a whole. Prior to removing the bottom strip, the cap carriers grip the caps and, following removal of the bottom strip, deposit the caps on the containers. The bottom strip, or segments of the bottom strip, is displaced by a drive means. Alternatively, the bottom strip (or segments thereof) may be designed to be resilient so that the cap carriers, with the caps, press the bottom strip away during the downward motion of the caps. This configuration allows the caps to be gripped by the cap carriers and thereby permits deposition of the caps in a simple downward motion onto the containers. Accordingly, a complex motion of the cap carriers, for instance including gripping the caps, lateral displacement and ensuing deposition motion, is avoided with the present invention.
According to another aspect of the invention, suction tubes are provided to grip the caps from above by suction. The suction tubes deposit the caps on the containers and then slightly press the caps against the containers for securing.
In further accordance with the present invention, the cap carriers may serve as the sealing heads in order to grip the caps by the pick-and-place procedure, to deposit the caps on the containers, and then to immediately seal the caps on the containers. Sealing may be, depending on the type of cap, by screwing, or, in the case of crown caps or can tops, by deformation.